# စ

| စ | U+1005, &#4101; MYANMAR LETTER CA |
| ← င [U+1004] | Myanmar | ဆ → [U+1006] |

## Burmese
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /sa̰/
* Romanization: MLCTS: ca. • ALA-LC: ca • BGN/PCGN: sa. • Okell: sá
* Audio:(file)

### Letter

စ • (ca.)
* Ca, the 6th letter of the Burmese alphabet.

### Etymology 1

According to Schuessler, related to Old Chinese 之 (OC *tjɯ, “to go, proceed”). An earlier derivation by Luce connects the word to Old Chinese 始 (OC *hljɯʔ, “to begin, start”), 初 (OC *sʰra, “initial, first”).

#### Verb

စ • (ca.)
* to begin; to start
    Synonym: ဦး (u:)
    Antonym: ဆုံး (hcum:)

##### Derived terms

* စတင် (ca.tang, verb)
* စဦးစွာ (ca.u:cwa, adverb)
* အစ (a.ca., noun)

##### Descendants

* → Mon: စ (ca /caʔ/)

#### Verb

စ • (ca.)
* euphonic

##### Derived terms

* စသည် (ca.sany)

### Etymology 2
#### Particle

စ • (ca.)
* interrogative verbal particle
    Synonym: လား (la:)
    ကြားပါစ ― kra:paca. ― do/did you hear it?
    တွေ့ပါစ ― twe.paca. ― do/did you find it?
    မြင်ပါစ ― mrangpaca. ― do/did you see it?
    ရှိပါစ ― hri.paca. ― is it there?

### References

* “စ” in Myanmar–English Dictionary (Myanmar Language Commission 1993). Searchable online at SEAlang.net.
* “စ, 1; စ, 2” in The Judson Burmese–English Dictionary (Rangoon: American Baptist Mission Press 1921), page 340.
* ↑ Luce, G. H. (1981) “-A finals (32. to Begin; Beginning)”, in A Comparative Word-List of Old Burmese, Chinese and Tibetan, London: School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, →ISBN, page 2)

## Mon
### Etymology 1

From Old Mon စ (caʔ), from Proto-Mon-Khmer *caʔ (“to eat”). Cognate with Nyah Kur จาʔ, Khmer ស៊ី (sii).

#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ɕiəʔ/
    Note: This pronunciation was developed from Middle Mon in a phonetically irregular manner.
* (Myanmar) IPA: /cɛʔ/
* (Thailand) IPA: /ceaʔ/
* Audio:(file)

#### Letter

စ (ca)
* Ca, the sixth consonant of the Mon alphabet.

#### Verb

စ (ca)
* to eat.
* to live on, to live (by the revenues of something)
* to divide (in arithmetic).
* to take (in chess and other games)
* {usually as va.} to begin, start {to}, do for the first time.
* to eat, to live on, by, by the revenues of, govern, to devide {in arithmetic}, to take, in chess and other games, wear away, erode.

#### Adverb

စ (ca)
* particle denoting generic or habitual aspect.

##### Derived terms

(Verbs)
* (causative) ဗ္စ (baca)
(Nouns)
* သွ (swa)

### Etymology 2

Borrowed from Burmese စ (ca.).

#### Pronunciation

* (Myanmar, Thailand) IPA: /caʔ/

#### Verb

စ (ca)
* to begin; to start.
* {usually as va.} to begin, start {to}, do for the first time, commence.

### References

* ↑ Jenny, Mathias (2001). A Short Introduction to the Mon Language.
* 1 2 3 Jenny, Mathias (2005) The verb system of Mon, University of Zurich, →DOI, →ISBN, page 199
* ↑ Sujaritlak Deepadung (1996) “Mon at Nong Duu, Lamphun Province”, in Mon-Khmer Studies‎, volume 26, page 416
* ↑ Haswell, J. M. (1874) Grammatical Notes and Vocabulary of the Peguan Language‎, Rangoon: American Mission Press, page 57

## Pali
### Alternative forms

* ca (Latin script)
* 𑀘 (Brahmi script)
* च (Devanagari script)
* চ (Bengali script)
* ච (Sinhalese script)
* ၸ (Burmese script)
* จ or จะ (Thai script)
* ᨧ (Tai Tham script)
* ຈ or ຈະ (Lao script)
* ច (Khmer script)
* 𑄌 (Chakma script)

### Particle

စ
* Burmese script form of ca (“and”)